Reviews

Buticha, tibs and gomen may not be in your everyday vocabulary, just yet. Buticha is a garlicky, chick pea dip; gomen contains collard greens; and tibs takes on chunks of marinated poultry, beef or lamb. Tampa’s Queen of Sheba is like a safari, a journey where you’ll embark on earthy, Ethiopian flavors. Found in a simple, south Tampa storefront, the eatery with its mottled, pumpkin walls, native textiles, and serving baskets called mesop, is about as far from western food as you can get.

This fragrant spot is humble but warm and inviting, serving authentic, traditional Ethiopian food, which is known for spicy vegetable and meat dishes served atop injera - flat, spongy bread that you tear off in pieces and use to scoop up bites of the meal. If you don't like to share dishes family-style, it's probably best to avoid. Frequently they'll turn up the African music and the servers, clad in traditional Ethiopian coffee dresses, will dance for the patrons.

Yesterday, a friend took another friend and I to the Queen of Sheba Ethiopian Restaurant in Tampa to celebrate our birthdays. Neither of us had been to the Queen of Sheba Ethiopian Restaurant, but the friend who took us had; she’d also had prior experiences with good Ethiopian food, so she knew we wouldn’t be disappointed in our first experience at the Queen of Sheba. We definitely weren’t.

When owner Seble Gizaw brought Ethiopian cuisine back to the Bay area, she started a renaissance. Do two Ethiopian restaurants in two years count as a trend? Gizaw's Queen of Sheba still serves the best of this home-cooking cuisine, and she brings plates to the table along with her welcoming conversation.

We’ve written about this humble Ethiopian joint in South Tampa several times this past year, and for good reason. Besides dishing up exceptional African home cooking served with grace and humor, owner Seble Gizaw also offers the Bay area a ray of hope, both for independent restaurants and for under-represented ethnic cuisine.

The space is one of those Bermuda Triangle sites that has seen the demise of a number of restaurant ventures. Queen of Sheba will stick, though, on the basis of its huge family-style platters of spiced legume or meat stews called wats, chicken drumsticks and hard-boiled eggs.

One event — a tiny restaurant opening in South Tampa on Henderson where a half-dozen restaurants have struggled and failed — has caused me to ring in the new year with a sense of optimism. The return of Ethiopian to the Bay area culinary landscape, after the demise of Ibex a few years ago, might just signify that we're ready to take our place among urban areas with enlightened palates. Ethiopian restaurants like Queen of Sheba are a subtle sign that a city has grown up.

Sheba does not push the boundaries of Ethiopian cuisine, but instead serves tasty and straightforward African home cooking -- and that's just fine.